The present invention relates to a system for attaching accessories to a vehicle's bodywork, and more specifically, to an attachment system using clips.
The invention is especially applicable to the attachment of accessories which are located in the interior of the motor vehicle, on the modular roof of the vehicle. For instance, the invention is applicable to the attachment of sunshades, hooks, hangers, handles, spectacle holders, etc.
Systems for attaching accessories to a vehicle's bodywork by means of clips are known, that include elastically deformable arms which are inserted by applying pressure through openings made in the sheet of the vehicle's roof or bodywork, where they remain attached, keeping the accessory in question in place. These clips can be metallic, obtained, for instance, from sheet steel.
For this purpose, clips are known which provide two supports on the bodywork sheet, thereby providing good resistance to stresses applied in the same plane, but are deficient to stresses applied in directions outside of said plane. This circumstance renders this type of clip inadequate for attaching accessories that must withstand stresses in different directions applied in different planes, as is the case of sunshades, handles, etc.
Also known are clips of larger dimensions which provide three main supports. These clips are designed so that one of them alone will withstand stresses in different directions, such as stresses that a sunshade must withstand. However, they have two main limitations: on one hand, their designs allow little flexibility, as they force the accessory axis to pass inevitably through the interior of the metallic clip. On the other hand, they are designs for clips with three large supports on the bodywork, which are inadequate for the attachment of accessories to bodywork sheet of low thickness, since in the working positions, at times, almost the entire couple of force of the accessory bears on one of the supports, deforming the bodywork precisely because of the low thickness of the sheet. In this sense, it must be taken into account that an increasing demand for low thickness of bodywork sheet exists, due to savings in weight and cost, with the aforementioned problems being present particularly in the attachment of sunshades.